Cousins Pot Luck

We had a terrific Cousins Pot Luck last night! These are the relatives on my mother's side. She has 2 sisters in Hawaii. This is the fourth we've hosted since we made the decision to move back to Hawaii. Prior to the pot lucks I hadn't seen my cousins except at my father's funeral several years ago. I love my friends here and they know it but I felt it was important to make connections with our relatives again, too.


Although we didn't see each other for almost four decades after we moved to the mainland, it's great to build these family ties again.

Each cousin, aunt and uncle brought over an incredible amount of AMAZINGLY scrumptious local food. There were fried noodles, lots of kahlbi, kalua pork, sushi, shrimp tempura, king crab legs, grilled shrimp, Italian noodles, spring rolls, all kinds of vegetable tempura, rice, potato salad, seafood liguine, crab casserole, broccoli salad, haupia fruit float and I forget what else. Dessert was a peach Bavarian cake, dream cake and flan.

With each family bringing three incredible dishes or a TON of their one entree, we had enough food for everybody to bring home for today's lunch or dinner. This is what the Hawaiian pot luck has evolved to. Everybody brings enough to the party to insure there's enough to take home. It's really fun to see the buffet tables groaning with the variety of food the family was inspired to share.

Now that this party is over we'll have Art's family in two weeks. I'll need to do some exercising before then.

My brother, Dennis spent a bit of time fixing Art's laptop that had gotten hit by a malware or virus. See what I mean about it being great having family? The cousins and I also made a pact to share old family photos of the three sisters. Now, if only my kids would come and move to Hawaii. That would be perfection!